Well, I was hoping for a wee bit more...

I'm no Mod, but in total isolation & frequent derision I latched onto a music & a style I loved. I worked away at it in the most nerdy way you could imagine. It was the one part of my life that was mine.

Then I found that my solitary vice was not such a solitary thing. That took me about 8 years.

No wonder I went nuts when I first walked into JS. I almost peed myself in the 346 too.

I'd love to claim some hip route to mod, but no, it was Paul Weller, that typically homoerotic attachment that lots of working class teenage boys had (some, indeed many, still have!) for him. He was THE hero in my school and the few times I saw The Jam live were the high points of my existence prior to discovering women and London and J.Simons and Italy and, well, the world beyond Liverpool. There was also an amazing interview with Pete Meaden that they reprinted in the NME over 3 sides of A4 in about 79/80 - totally inspirational stuff in which he philosophised about 'modism' as a viable alternative to the straight, family-orientated existence. As an awkward teenager heavily into clothes and Weller this was it - the ready made lifestyle package. I bought into it 100% and still do in a pathetic middle aged kind of way, even though I have 2 children and a mortgage etc... I still think going to an all-nighter and getting off your head on speed and dancing all night to great rare imported black music whilst bedecked in your best rare imported clothing is a wonderful thing. Ain't done it for a while and probably never will again, but it remains the alternative world to prepackaged, marketed, mainstream pop culture units of pleasure.

Mod in Liverpool would have been the same as it probably was in any other provincial British city if it wasn't for the influence of a solid group of really smart, motivated people who rallied around authentic notions of the lifestyle derived from the Meaden article, Weller's more thoughtful comments about mod (and his rejection of rock culture and immersion in jazz and soul and camp with The Style Council), the NME 'Mod Top 100' record list, and well just a general CURIOSITY about what it all was. I remember these words IVY LEAGUE kept on cropping up but NOBODY could define it. I went to the best tailor in Liverpool and got a few half decent suits made and the tailor thought that Ivy League meant something about a shadow stripe in the material. So he put us off the scent by a good few years with that comment. Meaden also talked about the Ivy League natural shoulder and Austins but we had no pictures, there was an absolute lack of information. There was a sense it was all moving in one direction towards this authentic, mystical look which we couldn't quite pinpoint. So it was all bespoke mohair suits, tracking down old Ben Shermans and Brutus stuff, Churchs brogues and Saxone used to do a wonderful chunky college loafer (still made for export to our Italian friends) which I seem to recall was called 'Weegians' - anyone else remember these? The music was all Sue/Pye International/Stateside/London and US import labels. We had a fanzine called 'The Weekend Dancer' which I wrote and now makes me blush (I was only 19...) which was very opinionated and started a campaign absolutely for 100% black music and in favour of boycotting 'mod' pop bands like Makin' Time.

Then in 1985 we found in a great old antique shop in Chester a pile of about 20 old Esquire magazines from the golden period, 58-62. The pieces suddenly all fitted, we had found our Holy Grail and life was never the same again.... In 86 I found J.Simons on one of the most memorable afternooons of my life. The adult identity was being formed and thankfully I (we!) had found the righteous path.

GG

The Saxone Weegian was the BEST English US style loafer IMO. Once I'd found them I wore nothing else until Bass and the other imported US brands entered my life. I saw some in Paris not too long ago after not seeing them for a good quarter of a century. A very moving moment.

Last edited by Just Jim (2009-04-27 00:43:44)

I'm not.

Am I then?

In which case I've just never heard of it/them I don't think.

Teach me?

There was a barbers off Fulham Broadway which used to have a pic of Holly in the window having is hair cut. I popped in once & then popped out again sharpish. A bit too spit & sawdust for even me.

Aye. He grew big & painted. Is he still with us? I hope so.

Paul Rutherford (sp?) was the one.

Was Burns the one with the hair who used to fuck around in that pub near the Playhouse?  'The Grapes'?

That's the chappie.